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    <title>Tutorial - The Sprint Planning Meeting</title>
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    <p class="header1">Tutorial - The First Sprint Planning Meeting</p>
    <p>Welcome to Tackle! This tutorial will teach you how to use Tackle during your sprint planning meetings.</p>
    <hr />
    
    <p class="header2">Section 1 - Creating a Product</p>
    
    
    <ol>
    <li>The goal of the first part of the sprint planning meeting is to get the product backlogs organized. To do this, we need a product backlog.</li>
    <li>In Tackle, each scrum team can have multiple product backlogs which come together to form a master backlog. This master backlog can also be shared between multiple scrum teams. To start, we need to create a product in the master backlog.</li>
    
    <p><img border="0" src="images/tutorial2_1.jpg" /></p>
    
    <li>From the Tackle homepage, hover over the Product menu at the top of the page.</li>
    <li>From the Product menu select "Product Entry".</li>
    <li>Click the "New Product" button at the bottom of the table.</li>
    
    <p><img border="0" src="images/tutorial2_2.jpg" /></p>
    
    <li>A new row will appear in the table with the default name "Product Name". In this field, enter the name of your product.</li>
    <li>In the remaining fields, enter the appropriate information for your product. For additional help with these fields, see the help for this page.</li>
    <li>Once you have all the product information entered, click "Update".</li>
    <li>Repeat these instructions for each product that your scrum team will be working on. Once you have added all of your products, move on to Section 2 - Creating a Product Backlog.</li>
    </ol>
    
    <p class="header2">Common Questions:</p>
    <ul type="circle">
    <li><font class="header3">What counts as a product?</font> The definition of a product is whatever works best for your scrum team. Some teams count different versions of a product as individual products. Other teams count pieces of a product as individual products, for example tools within an XDK. Create products that make sense for your team.</li>
    <li><font class="header3">Can multiple scrum teams use the same master backlog?</font> Yes, and in this case you may want to divide the work into products based on the scrum team names. That way, work can exist in a single master backlog, and shared by all teams, but work specific to a scrum team can be categorized appropriately.</li>
    </ul>

    <hr />
    
    <p class="header2">Section 2 - Creating a Product Backlog</p>
    <ol>
    <li>Now that we have some products, we need to create a backlog of work for those products. From the Tackle homepage, hover over the Product menu at the top of the page.</li>
    
    <p><img border="0" src="images/tutorial2_3.jpg" /></p>
    
    <li>From the Product menu select "Product Backlog Entry".</li>
    <li>Each product has a product backlog. To find out more about the columns on this page check the help for this page.</li>
    
    <p><img border="0" src="images/tutorial2_4.jpg" /></p>
    
    <li>In this table you should start adding feature level work for each of your products. Below are some things to consider when adding features:
        <ul type="circle">
        <li>Each feature has an activity field. Some teams use this field as a sub-feature field, others use it to group work into development, program management or test. How your team uses this field is up to you.</li>
        <li>Time estimates for features will be in hours or weeks, depending on the preference you selected for your scrum team. Estimates are just that, rough ballpark features for how long all the work for that feature will take.</li>
        <li>In the description field, you have the option of breaking your feature down into tasks. This will help you quickly generate tasks during your sprint backlog creation. Use the following notation to break features into tasks: Task:Task_Description [owner/base_time]. The base time is in the units used for the product/master backlog.</li>
        </ul>
    </li>
    <li>Once you have added some features to a product, you will want to begin sorting these features in some way. You have some options which are described below:
        <ul type="circle">
        <li><font class="header3">Sort by Priority</font> - Using the priority column you can sort features be setting their importance.</li>
        <li><font class="header3">Sort by Product Rank</font> - Once you have added priorities, use the product rank column to determine what the single most important piece of work is, and then the second most important and so on. To speed up this process, click the Re-Number Product Rank checkbox at the bottom of the table to get a number 1 through N assigned to each feature. Then you can use the dropdowns in the product rank column to continue sorting.</li>
        <li><font class="header3">Sort by Master Rank</font> - If you don't see the master rank column, at the bottom of the table you can check the "Show Master Rank" checkbox. The master rank value is a rank across all features of all products. If you want to sort your features taking into account all other product features, this is the column to use.</li>
        </ul>
    </li>
    <li>Sort your features for this product, and then do the same for your other products. Once all of your features are in, and in the appropriate order, move on the Section 3 - Adding a Sprint.</li>
    </ol>
    
    <hr />
    
    <p class="header2">Section 3 - Adding a Sprint</p>
    <ol>
    <li>Now that we have a product backlog, we need to create a sprint so that we can assign some work. From the Tackle homepage, hover over the Product menu at the top of the page.</li>
   
    <p><img border="0" src="images/tutorial2_5.jpg" /></p>
   
    <li>From the Product menu select "Scrum Schedule Entry".</li>
    <li>Click the "New Sprint" button at the bottom of the table.</li>
    
    <p><img border="0" src="images/tutorial2_6.jpg" /></p>
    
    <li>A new row will appear in the table with the default name "Sprint Name". In this field enter the name of your first sprint.</li>
    <li>In this table you will define when your sprints start and end, list how many people are involved in each sprint and estimate an overall team buffer for the sprint. Here are a few things to consider when doing that:
        <ul type="circle">
        <li>Use the buffer as a divider. If on average, your scrum team completes 6 hours of work in an 8 hour day, set their buffer at 1.33. This value can also be used to correct a team that is bad at estimating. If your team says that a task will take 6 hours, but it really takes 8, then their buffer should be 1.33.</li>
        <li>When adding future sprints, you may want to consider leaving a week in-between sprints. This will give you time to do planning for the upcoming sprint.</li>
        </ul> 
    </li>
    <li>Once you have added the information for the sprint, click "Update".</li>
    <li>When you are finished adding a few sprints, move on to Section 4 - Preparing the Master Backlog.</li>
    </ol>
    
    <hr />
    
    <p class="header2">Section 4 - Preparing the Master Backlog</p>
    <ol>
    <li>Now it's time to prepare the master backlog. This is the page where all the final prioritization for a single scrum team happens. From the Tackle homepage, hover over the Product menu at the top of the page.</li>
    
    <p><img border="0" src="images/tutorial2_7.jpg" /></p>
    
    <li>From the Product menu select "Master Backlog". There is a lot of information on this page, so start by reviewing the help page.</li>
    
    <p><img border="0" src="images/tutorial2_8.jpg" /></p>
    
    <li>For this section, the master rank column is the most important column on the page. Your goal for this section is to get all of the work that needs to be included in your upcoming sprint to the top of the table. To do this, you have a few choices:
        <ol type="a">
        <li>At the top of the table uncheck the "Show Rank Drop List" checkbox. Select the checkbox for each feature that should be included in the upcoming sprint. Once they are all selected, choose the value "1.00" from the "Move Selected Items to Rank" dropdown list. If the value "1.00" isn't included in the dropdown list, you should click "Re-number Master Rank" at the bottom of the table.</li>
        <li>At the top of the table check the "Show Rank Drop List" checkbox. Find each feature that should be included in the upcoming sprint and move it to the appropriate rank at the top of the table.</li>
        <li>Go to the product backlog entry page and give each feature that you want to include in the upcoming sprint a priority of 1. Return to the master backlog page and select the checkbox for all features with a product priority of "1". Once they are all selected, choose the value "1.00" from the "Move Selected Items to Rank" dropdown list.</li>
        <li>The previous three choices are best used if you already have an idea of what work needs to be included in the upcoming sprint. If you are not sure what work needs to be included you can use the "Update Master Rank from Product Rank" link at the bottom of the table. This will put all of the priority 1 features across all products at rank 1, followed by the priority 2 features across all products, and so on.</li>
        </ol>
    </li>
    <li>Once your master backlog is sorted, take a look at the sprint end column. This column indicates the end date of the sprint during which this work will be completed. Do all of the features you want in the sprint appear to fit in the sprint?</li>
    <li>When you are satisified with the features that fit into the upcoming sprint, move on to Section 5 - Generating the Sprint Backlog.</li>
    </ol>
    
    <hr />
    
    <p class="header2">Section 5 - Generating the Sprint Backlog</p>
    <ol>
    <li>Now that you have decided what you will be working on during the next sprint, it's time to generate a sprint backlog. From the Tackle homepage, hover over the Sprint menu at the top of the page.</li>
    
    <p><img border="0" src="images/tutorial2_9.jpg" /></p>
    
    <li>Click on "Generate Sprint Backlog" in the Sprint menu.</li>    
    <li>From the dropdown list, select the sprint whose backlog you wish to generate. Click "Next".</li>
    
    <p><img border="0" src="images/tutorial2_10.jpg" /></p>
    
    <li>Next, you need to add the available resources for this sprint. If this is your very first sprint, you may need to add them each individually, by clicking the "New Resource" button at the bottom of the table. If you have generated sprint backlogs in the past you can use the "Insert Resources From Last Sprint" link.</li>
    
    <p><img border="0" src="images/tutorial2_11.jpg" /></p>
    
    <li>Make sure the buffer and out of office hours for each person are correct. The buffer here is on an individual basis and may vary from the buffer of the entire team. If the resource is dedicated full time for the length of the sprint you can leave the "Calculate Sprint Time" checkbox checked.</li>
    <li>Once all the resources have been listed, and their buffers and OOF hours are correct, click "Next".</li>
    
    <p><img border="0" src="images/tutorial2_12.jpg" /></p>
    
    <li>You should now see the master backlog list again. All features that have been calculated to fit in this current sprint will have the "Add to Sprint" checkbox checked. You may choose to select additional work. When all the work is selected, click "Finish".</li>    
    <li>That's it! You have now created a sprint backlog. The second part of sprint planning involves breaking features down into tasks and assigning those tasks to resources. This is discussed in Tutorial 3 - The Second Sprint Planning Meeting.</li>
    </ol>
    
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